Marsh Towers features reviews of books, shows and events together with sundry musings

Saturday, 30 November 2013

Supermac!

An Evening With Supermac

Arcot Golf Club, Cramlington

28.11.2013

Malcolm Macdonald - ''Supermac''! - entertained a select audience with an abundance of tales from his lengthy career in football.

The former Luton, Newcastle and Arsenal striker - who once scored a five goals in a single game for England - spoke for over two hours (not including the half-time break for pie and peas) before taking questions from the audience. There were many highlights.

As a boy, he used to meet his footballing heroes at the grounds to collect their autographs. Bobby Robson made him carry his bag before signing his book. A decade later, Robson signed him for a brief spell Fulham - and recognised him immediately.

Supermac rates George Best as the finest player he ever saw and Johnny Giles as the toughest (''his tackles were so late, they would arrive in the middle of the next week'').

He was frank with his thoughts on England's World Cup prospects (let's just say we're not anticipating success in the near future) club chairmen and managers; there were plenty of stories regarding the likes of Alf Ramsey - and what the England boss said to Bobby Moore when he made the fatal mistake of nodding off during one of Alf's famous two-hour team talks.

Half-time brought with it a number of fund raising events, such as an auction of signed memorabilia (with items signed not just by Malcolm, but also by Geoff Hurst and Alan Shearer). Malcolm was very approachable and was happy to pose for photographs as well as sign snaps taken during his Newcastle and England games.

The event was organised in aid of local heroes, for whom approximately £2,800 was raised.

It was a very entertaining evening and the sort of thing we could with much more frequently here in the North East.